The year of President Bill Barr (2011-12)
Greeting from Rotarian Bill Barr, President July 2011 - July 2012  The Rotary Club of Upper Eden is a diverse group of individuals who enjoy the company and fellowship of similar like-minded people. Our Tuesday evening meetings at the Black Bull, Nateby, have an emphasis on conviviality; include a meal and refreshment, a short business agenda and frequently a guest speaker. Throughout the year there are regular events some of which are fundraising like the Yomp and Christmas raffle while others are aimed at helping the local community, such as the Young Designer Awards, Community Bingo and Town Tidy Up. Our club has some talented and enterprising members and contacts who have directly embraced projects in far flung corners of the globe, note the links on the left for Mali and Timbuktu. We have also given assistance to Tim Coburn and his project to help with schooling in the poverty of Kibera, Nairobi. These projects are particularly satisfying as they have given us direct contact with those in need.  Other projects rely on the infrastructure of Rotary International such as Polio Plus which is now very close to the incredible feat of world eradication of the disease. Shelter Box is a fast growing and successful organisation that was started by Rotary and is able to respond rapidly to those humanitarian disasters that regularly occur in our world.I recommend that you have a look at the video on the Vision Aid page and look out for the “VAO smile”. It is a fine example of how a small amount of money, well placed, can make a huge difference to people’s lives. In short being a member of Rotary is life enhancing; it is enjoyable and satisfying, it encourages us to engage with each other, it promotes a sense of community and together we can perhaps achieve something for those less fortunate than ourselves, locally, nationally and internationally. |
| Events July 2011 - July 2012 |
| 1 July 2011. Upper Eden Rotary Club Change-Over Night |
| This year our annual change-over night was held at the Bay Horse at Winton. Outgoing president John Andrew gave an address summarizing his year as president and expressed his thanks to all club members for their unwavering support during his year of office. He then handed over the chain of office to incoming president Bill Barr conveying his best wishes for another successful year for the Rotary Club of Upper Eden. |
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| 5 July 2011. Teaching with a Difference. Ruth Webster Richard Todd introduced Ruth Webster, our speaker for the evening. Ruth is the stand-in head teacher at Ravenstonedale Primary school where Richard and John Houston are Governors. The current head teacher, Jan Tringham, is taking a year out teaching in Ethiopia. In 1997/8 Ruth and her husband David were in Papau, New Guinea where she was teaching 400 children in a boarding school close to the coast. Ruth is a qualified teacher and her skills were in great demand, but her husband is a farmer and there was no requirement for his expertise, but fortunately everything worked out well. It was a whole new experience for Ruth from teaching in the UK, for example: (1) It was a fee paying school and fees were only paid after the coffee harvest was completed. (2) Language – there were approximately 700 different dialects spoken on the island, so English was used in school, or a version of it. (3) The diet for the children was very healthy, being close to the coast was mainly fish. (4) The witch doctor still has an influence in daily life. (5) The children are very good at sports especially javelin throwing due to throwing spears at animals for food. There was a close link to Rotary on the island where there existed a scheme entitled “Save water Save lives” where there was a regular supply of clean running water helping to reduce the risk of polio. She finished off by informing us that she certainly enjoyed her time in Papua and she and David would love to return to the island one day. We all thanked Ruth for a very interesting and varied talk. |
| 26 July 2011. Annual Clay Pigeon Shoot, Quoits and BBQ evening at Flitholme Once again Fred and Judith Hayllar kindly hosted our annual clay pigeon shoot. The event was attended by members, partners, guests and Rotary members from Appleby and Wensleydale Clubs. It was a fine evening, much better than the cold and wet of 2010, even the midges did not come out till later !!! A close-won contest at the Clay Pigeon shoot saw John Taylor from Appleby win the coveted bottle of whisky (not that we saw the top come off !!!) and Fred Hayllar won the Quoits. We had two gorillas (sorry grillers), namely Ray Thornton and John Begg who did an excellent job barbequing the food. Judith and her lovely army of wives prepared an excellent spread to accompany the sausages, burgers, bacon and black pudding followed by strawberries and ice cream. Ivor Allonby gave a vote of thanks and a bouquet of flowers was presented to Judith. A great evening. |
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| 1 August 2011. Vision Aid Overseas A further 83 pairs of spectacles were dispatched to Vision Aid Overseas, most of which were collected by Kirkby Stephen Primary school. |
2 August 2011. Stonehenge in Australia (Clonehenge) Fred Hayllar gave a talk on a new tourist attraction at Esperance in Australia, it is a modern replica of Stonehenge, however, this one is made from local Esperance pink granite, all cut to shape in the local quarry. Unfortunately, the person who originally thought up the idea and commissioned it, went bust, so a couple from the Esperance Rotary Club decided to take on the project and complete it. It consists of 137 granite stones, the rocks stand 7.7m high and the biggest is 50.3 tonnes, the lintels on top are all 18 tonnes. Fred commented that there are no pagan rituals and no witches in Esperance, and they are still looking for vestal virgins !!! Michael Metcalf-Gibson gave a vote of thanks and the club responded in the usual way. |
| 3 August 2011.
Kirkby Stephen Sweep and Clean Wednesday saw the second "Sweep and Clean" in preparation for the visit of "Britain in Bloom" judges on Friday 5th August. Wednesdays work group was organised by "The Delegator" Ivor Allonby, Upper Eden's own version of "The Terminator" Arnold Schwarzenegger !!! Clean up was carried out near Jubilee park and The Bridge, the Nateby Road and also South Road. The attached images show action !! shots taken on the evening. |
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| 9 August 2011. Paul Jackson's Aviaries On Tuesday 9th August, Rotarians were given a guided tour of Paul Jackson's Aviaries. To say we were surprised at how many birds he had, was an understatement. Paul's best estimate was about 350 birds consisting of 39 species. Most of the birds originate from Australia and consisted of finches, doves, parroquets, quails etc. Paul explained that his aim is to breed from all of the pairs of birds, so far there are only a couple of pairs he has not succeeded in doing so and we were shown the cages where the birds hatch their young. It was interesting to hear how the value of birds can vary depending on the colour of their plumage and how there are "in colours" each year. Paul is in the process of replacing all of the aviaries and expanding the number he has. It was a very interesting evening and Lawrence gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the club and both Paul and Derek Ousby came for a meal at Nateby afterwards. |
16 August. The River Lune, Douglas Birkbeck Lawrence Cowin introduced Douglas who was born and bred in Soulby. Douglas started by saying that he first came to talk to Upper Eden Rotary 23 years ago, when he gave a talk on the River Eden!! Douglas explained that the River Lune's journey to the sea south of Heysham actually started in Newbiggin-on-Lune and is the result of several different Becks running into one. The "Biggin" in Newbiggin actually means "Building". We were shown various slides, one of them being Ravenstonedale Railway Station which was actually in Newbiggin-on-Lune so anyone thinking they were arriving at Ravenstonedale actually had a bit of a walk!! This was followed by a picture of Tebay Station which at one time was quite a major station. The River Lune weaves it way from Newbiggin down to Tebay, Hallbeck, Kirkby Lonsdale, Hornby, Lancaster until it reaches the sea at Sunderland Point. What is not generally known is the Lune was at one time an excellent river for Salmon and Trout. An excellent talk and presentation and Peter Davy gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the club to which everyone responded in the usual way. |
23 August 2011. Yomp Presentation Evening This week saw the annual Yomp presentation evening to the representatives of the nominated charities, these being the Alzheimer's Society (Penrith Branch), Prostate Cancer Charity and also Shelterbox. Cheques for £1500 were presented to each of the recipients present, who also responded, giving a brief overview of their charities. Julie Prior, who represented the Alzheimer's Society first explained that she was originally a Rotarian and in fact the first female Rotarian in Cumbria, unfortunately, she had to come out of Rotary to look after her father when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Julie went onto say that today, there are 7300 people with dementia in Cumbria and this is likely to rise to an excess of 10,000 by 2021 !! Julie was followed by John Eakins, a volunteer from the Prostate Cancer Charity. John explained that over 10.000 men die each year from this disease and that Prostate Cancer is seen very much as the "Cinderella" of cancers. He went on to explain how the money would be used. The charity spend over £1m a year on research, they support men with the cancer, raise awareness, provide literature (some of which was left for members) and organise events such as a national sponsored moustache growing event in November of each year. Andrew Bailey from the Carlisle Rotary Club followed up with his "Napkin" speech by saying that Upper Eden Club is one of the biggest supporters, if not the biggest supporter of Shelterbox in the district. Shelterbox is now being deployed in Libya and the Horn of Africa and is one of the top charities in the UK and now has eight international distribution centres. Allan Barr from JT Atkinson's, the main sponsor of the Yomp, also attended and was thanked by Ben Lyon for their involvement. Overall, an excellent evening, very informative and really explained how important the monies raised by The Yomp helps the nominated charities |
| 1 September 2011. Bowls Semi Final After a very tough schedule of non-competition matches, Upper Eden Rotary, under the captaincy of David Garrick made it through to the area semi-finals on the 1st September. The team set off in high spirits with great expectations of victory, this being based on their current record of nil defeats and to be honest, nil competitive games !! Anyway, thinking positive, they arrived to be presented with not just a normal Barrow Rotary team, but a Rotary team of County players !! Following a team talk to get everyone psyched up, the competition began, unfortunately, with all the good planning, things did not work out and we were beaten by 4 games to one. Never mind, there is always next year !! On the positive side, the team were treated to an excellent evening of fellowship and refreshments, just as well the team had "doggy" bags to bring home surplus food for the long journey home. |
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| 6 September 2011. Rare Breeds Survival Trust John Alderson introduced our speaker this evening, who was Lawrence Alderson (no relation, we were assured). Lawrence has had a career in Genetics and founded the Rare Breeds Genetics Trust. His talk, accompanied by a presentation, covered various breeds of horses and ponies, cattle and sheep. He showed how all sheep actually come from the Moniflon breed which came from the Turkey, Iraq region and Lawrence showed how different breeds of sheep had different ways of storing fat, i.e. tails, rump etc plus, how different countries bred sheep to accommodate their regional requirements, such as either very long legs or fat buttocks. He also talked about how there is a Hungarian pig that actually grows a fleece. All in all, a very interesting talk and presentation showing that not all of what you see in the local fields and auction marts is what what is actually out there, plus, where did they all originate. |
| 13 September 2011. Curry Aid Night at Soulby Village Hall For a change, Club members along with wives and partners decamped to Soulby Village Hall for the weekly meeting, the occasion being a curry night to raise money for Curry Aid, a charity set up by local person Jessie Oddy to raise money for orphanages in the Tamil Nadu area of Southern India. All money raised goes direct to the two orphanages supported by Curry Aid and pays for things such as bunk beds, meals and toys for the children. The curry evening raised £320 for the charity, plus, another £200 was raised toward a sponsored charity cycle ride made by Paul Holroyd, who cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise money for the same charity. A great evening was had by all and in the process, was able to raise money for a great charity. |
30 September 2011. Upper Eden Rotary Club Charter Night The 32nd Charter Night was held at The Tufton Arms in Appleby. Attendees from eleven other Rotary clubs attended along with club members and their wives. Guests invited for the evening included Assistant District Governor Alan Hoggarth and the Chairman of Upper Eden Probus Club, Richard Arrowsmith. The guest speaker for the evening was Alston Vet Karl Collins who gave an entertaining talk about his experiences as a vet ! Alan Hoggarth also inducted Dr. Carl Hallam as a member of The Rotary Club of Upper Eden. It was an evening of celebration and friendship, plus light entertainment (including lively banter) provided by members and guests. In his speech President Bill Barr bravely said he judged the continuing success of the Club by his 'Chatter Index'. This, as he declared to much laughter, was the noise made by members in lively conversation at their weekly meetings, rivaling that of a room full of women....and the ladies present said...... well, what the ladies present said, was not recorded !! |
| 4 October 2011. Visit of Sunny Akuopha from Bamako, Mali This week saw a return visit by Sunny to Upper Eden Rotary Club, the weather this time being better than his previous visit when most of the club could not attend due to the snow !! Sunny explained to everyone that his district, District 9100, actually covers 14 different countries, although at the moment, they are looking to maybe split the district into two, one district having ten countries and the other having four. Sunny explained that the name Mali is actually the name of a Hippo and that the first Rotary Club in the district was set up 50 years ago. They are at present working toward setting up more clubs and have a target of five new clubs. Their first contact with members of Upper Eden and Appleby Clubs was when Roger Frank and John Taylor went with the famed "Ice Cream" van, John also attended tonight's meeting. Arthur Littlefair gave a vote of thanks on behalf of the club and everyone responded in the usual way in thanking Sunny for coming along and explaining more about the geographical area of District 9100. |
| 25 October 2011. Job Talk by David Caldow David recently transferred into the Upper Eden Club from Birkenhead. His career started as an articled apprentice in the timber trade, this then followed by working for a company where his role was turning around poor performing branches. He then went into house building by working for a company making panels for dolls houses!! Deciding now was the right time, he started his own company called the “The Desk Centre” where he distributed from his own warehouse, office furniture throughout the UK, mainly to universities, schools and the police. A very interesting talk from a man who’s passion is also sailing. What is he doing in Cumbria? |
| 01 November 2011. Visit to The Croglin Brewery. The meeting this week moved to the Croglin Hotel in Kirkby Stephen where the evening started with a tour of the micro brewery in the cellar. The resident brewer, Ian Simpkin, showed and explained the process where he as was actually just completing a brew. He explained how the use of different hops can affect the taste of the beer, i.e. from less bitter ale to a more bitter ale. Following the tour, everyone retired to the bar to sample the brew and also to enjoy a very good meal. Thanks were given to both Rob and Ian for their time and the meal by club President Bill Barr. |
| 02 November 2011. Inter Club 10 Pin Bowing at Workington Under the leadership and captaincy of David Garrick, the team of Graham Curtis, Arthur Littlefair, Ivor Allonby, Lawrence Cowin and Dave Prince travelled to Workington for the match. As everyone was keen to get there, we arrived early, so decided to get some practice before the opponents arrived. Following the practice and being thoroughly limbered up and ready to go, we felt confident and proceeded with match which proved to be very competitive and ended up very close at the end. Unfortunately we lost by six points. Never mind, a good evening, pity about the result. |
| 15 November 2011. Annie Hamilton-Gibney, Archaeology of the Mallerstang Valley Annie gave a very good presentation and showed various artefacts that have been found locally, namely flint axe heads found at Wharton Hall, Neolithic axes found near Outhgill. She also explained how there have been other items found from other parts of the country that really showed that Mallerstang and the Upper Eden Valley could be the centre of everywhere (and not the centre of nowhere) part of the country where traders met to exchange goods. Annie also showed various buildings where they had been extended, including the notorious rogue and highwayman Ned Ward whose house was in Outhgill. There was also a lot of mining that went on in Mallerstang, including coal mining. An interesting talk which just shows how much history there is locally. The club gave their thanks in the usual way. |
| 22 November 2011. Roger Frank. Things to do before you die! Roger presented a show and talk about The Goodwood Revival held at the Goodwood circuit in Sussex in the middle of September each year. Roger visited in September 2011. He mentioned that this year was the 50th year of the E Type Jag, the 75th year of the Spitfire and the 100th year of Ford in Britain. Parts of the display were people in period costume and he gave a presentation (allowing for technical problems) of some of the exhibits and races and talked about some of the cars on show and racing. The weekend also included a fly past of a Flying Fortress and spitfires. An interesting talk thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. |
| 26 November 2011. Wines and Savouries Evening at Soulby Soulby Village Hall was the venue for the annual wine and savouries evening. This year was the normal successful do with about 100 people attending. As usual, the excellent range food was provided by wives and partners. During the course of the evening the annual Rotary Coop Raffle was drawn the Coop vouchers, the winners this year were Joyce Jackson (£100), Janet Hartley (£50), Hannah Andrew (£25) and Diane Barnes (£25). An excellent evening, enjoyed by all, raising money for Rotary charities. Bill Barr expressed his thanks to wives, partners and members for organising the evening. |
| 29 November 2011. Vision Aid Overseas 31 pairs of spectacles were dispatched to Vision Aid Overseas. |
| 29 November 2011. Kathy Usher, Wider Aspects of Dowsing Peter Derry introduced Kathy Usher as a former Met Police officer and a former Rugby, Swimming and basketball coach. She started her talk by explaining that dowsing has been around since at least the 5th century and was initially used to find water and minerals. She went on to give practical demonstrations using various different types of dowsing rods and tools, co opting support from her able assistant, Ben Lyon!! Kathy explained how it can be used for detecting underground streams and even asking the rods to point to different people or objects. An interesting and thought provoking talk and a vote of thanks being given by Carl Hallam with the members responding in the normal fashion. |
| 06 December 2011. Stephen Walker, The Nine Standards Ray Thornton introduced the evening speaker by saying they had grown up together and that Stephen has written a book on The Nine Standards. He showed aerial images that there has not always been just the nine and has varied between eight and ten. No one really knows why they were originally built or when although there are records going back for 800 years showing they have been there in one form or another. Stephen also explained about an organisation called “The Friends of The Nine Standards” whose object is to fund non-intrusive research that will determine beyond reasonable doubt whether the major features on Nine Standards Rigg reflect archaeology or lithology and to publicise these findings to a wider public. An interesting talk on what looks down on us from above on the high fells. Peter Davy gave a vote of thanks and the club responded in the normal way. |
13 December 2011. Upper Eden Rotary Raffle Winners  The picture shows the winners of the Co-op raffle receiving their prizes of Co-op gift vouchers from Upper Eden President Bill Barr. The first prize £100 in vouchers was Joyce Jackson, second with £50 was Janet Hartley (absent), third with £25 was Hannah Andrew and fourth with £25 Diana Barnes. The Rotary Club of Upper Eden would like to thank the Co-op manager Marge Dillon (Pictured) and her staff for allowing the sale of the raffle tickets at the Kirkby Stephen store. |
| 16 December 2011.
Bingo at Mill Gardens It was eyes down for a line and full house at Mill Gardens on the 16th December when a Bingo Night was arranged. There was a good turnout of about twenty people taking part, both from Mill gardens and also from outside. The evening was facilitated by several members of the club who assisted by calling the numbers, checking the cards and giving out the prizes. A very good evening enjoyed by all. |
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| 19 December 2012. Aquabox 87321 despatched Today our club despatched another aquabox. Box number 87321. |